Midori

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Midori's Bio: The violinist Midori is recognized not only for the evolution and scope of her more than three decade career as one of the most dazzlingly gifted performers before the public, but increasingly for the prescient and innovative community engagement initiatives to which she devotes a substantial amount of her energies and resources worldwide on an ongoing basis. Named a Messenger of Peace by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2007, she has created a new model for young artists who seek to balance the joys and demands of a performing career at the highest level with a hands-on investment in the power of music to change lives.

Midori's love of performing is balanced every year with substantial commitments to education and community engagement initiatives. The unifying constant throughout the year will be Midori's ongoing devotion to her students at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, where she is both Jascha Heifetz Chair and Chair of the Strings Department. Midori thrives amidst the challenges presented by her full-time career as educator and administrator at a major university. To these commitments she adds ongoing, hands-on involvement in the four community engagement organizations she has founded - Midori & Friends, Partners in Performance, Orchestra Residencies Program, and Music Sharing.

Midori's involvement with community engagement began in earnest in 1992. Upon learning of severe cutbacks to arts education in New York City public schools, she conceived of an organization she called Midori & Friends. What started with just individual personal visits by Midori to schools in underserved neighborhoods of the City has over the last 20+ years grown into a multi-tiered 26-week course for school children, including instrument instruction, elementary music theory, choral singing and community concerts. Over 200,000 children have participated in Midori & Friends programs in every borough of New York City in the succeeding years.

With the belief that chamber music in small communities deserves support, Midori took the $50,000 she won as part of the Avery Fisher Prize in 2001 and established a new organization, Partners in Performance. The raison d'être of the organization is to stimulate and reinforce local interest in recitals and chamber music, especially in smaller communities without the advantages of large urban centers, which are automatically included in every major concert tour. To two winning applicant organizations annually,Partners in Performance awards a recital by Midori and, in the following season, a Young Artists Program recital by a rising star - both to be played, at substantially reduced rates, as part of the winning organization's regular season. Proceeds from the concerts are used by the community to support its chamber music programs. Midori has encouraged other established artists to participate in Partners in Performance programs, and in the 2009-2010 season pianist Jonathan Biss joined the team. … Read more